Showing posts with label vintage illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vintage illustration. Show all posts

May 11, 2012

Flickr Favourite: May 9, 2012




{Blue Dress ~ sugarpie honeybunch}


{1955 Blue Boy paint by number picture ~ calloohcallay} ]


{Wem schoolchildren learning domestic skills and gardening ~ LIGC ~ NLW}

 


{1950s blossom earrings ~ pipnstuff}


{1940s dress fashions ~ genibee}


{Fire King teacups ~ lilyrose1963}


{1950s blue and white wiggle dress ~ Retro Kitten Vintage}


{Woman models tennis fashions at Burdine's ~ State Libraries and Archives of Florida}


{Blue bird 1 ~ Georgiana Gem}


{Vintage Mother Goose Storybook Print 'rain' ~ TheVintageRead}

♥ ♥ ♥
 
 

It's hardly a secret that I adore colour! Whether I'm building a rainbow of vintage dresses, crafting a handmade greeting card, decorating my abode, or buying a floral arrangement, I'm very often drawn to a plethora of different hues. They needn't always be bright or bold to get my attention, though. Pale, whisper light colours can be every bit as interesting and engaging as punchy ones, as can muted hues and the highly saturated end of the spectrum that is jewel tones.

Each and every colour, in the right context, can be amazing. It can be shy, confident, powerful, delicate, mesmerizing, inspiring, and unforgettable. As each season rolls about, I usually find myself drawn to one or two colours above the rest however. Sometimes I can trace the image or event that inspired my infatuation with a certain hue, at others it's a desire that comes on seemingly out of thin air, akin in so many ways to a food craving - only for the eyes.

This spring I've been enamoured with blue - all shades, from the softest baby blue to the deepest indigo. I think it is blue's inherent sense of tranquility and peace that's made me wish to both drape myself in this colour and spend my time looking at beautiful images featuring all manner of blue shades. With the big move earlier this year and the flurry of activity that fell on either side of it, a lot of the days in 2012 so far have been heavily stressful, busy ones and I suspect that my subconscious was yearning for a sense of respite.

Blue, beautiful, wise colour that it is, was able to deliver a feeling of just that and so it has been the hue at the center of my radar this season, as well as being a key ingredient in many of the Flickr (like the handful in today's post) images I've been adoring lately.

As the season marches onward and life returns to a less hectic pace, I'm excited to see which colour will nab my attention next. Whatever it is, chances are it'll pop up in posts here all throughout the coming months.

What colours are you crushing on right now and which do you foresee being the stars of this coming summer in your books?


January 4, 2011

Vintage 365: “Westminster from the Thames” vintage travel poster


Day 4 of Vintage 365

 

 
When one thinks of vintage travel posters, those exquisite works of art from the golden era of luxurious sightseeing and adventure, it is usually images of sun-kissed locations, portrayed as dripping with tropical or Mediterranean splendour that spring to mind. Yet, just as today not every journey is to a beach or rolling Italian hillside, so too were travel destinations of yesteryear a very mixed lot.
 
While perusing vintage travel posters this week (daydreaming, I’ll admit it, of leaving behind the snow that came barrelling back into town on Sunday for some wildly warm corner of the globe), I chanced upon this understatedly beautiful one from 1934 (on the wonderful UK site Exploring 20th century London) that beckons tourists and locals alike to explore London and see Westminster Abbey from the vantage point of the River Thames.
 
I adore the muted tones, the iconic hints of late art deco era style to the illustration, and the fact there there is absolutely no sense of pomp to this deeply sophisticated vintage poster. It is now, every bit as lovely and intriguing today as it was 77 years ago – so much so actually, that it (at least temporarily) made me forget about warm, sandy beaches and suddenly want to pack my bags for a trip to merry old England! Smile